Essential Jazz Singers - Various Artists

A History of Jazz

Advantages: Fantastic
Disadvantages: There are none

A History of Jazz just has got to be one of the most comprehensive programmes on the history of jazz that I have ever come across. It is subtitled Bluesland A portrait In American Music. It shows the very heavy Blues influence on the original forms of jazz. The first section is called: Everybody got the Blues. It starts with a haunting Blues refrain, as the camera look along some railroad tracks to some plaintive blues music. The camera then shows some typical scenes of life in the south of America. A steam train, black people working on the farms and playing and singing the blues. Then, comes the introduction to the programme, proper, by the host, Keith David, with Albert Murray and Robert Palmer. Keith David points out that everyone gets the blues, and that everyone develops methods of coping with the blues. His favourite ...

Martinscholes 02.01.2006 · Read full review
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Review of History Of Jazz, A - Various Artists

Vintage Jazz Volume 4

Advantages: Some really good tracks
Disadvantages: Some are "so-so"

, That Old Feeling is an example of laid back jazz, with Frankie Laine singing. Frankie Laine? Yep. Frankie Laine was a mean exponent of the jazz idiom in the early days of his career. At one point jazz outfits such as Buck Clayton and his Orchestra was the only real way that singers such as Frankie Laine could get gigs. If You Were Mine, also by Buck Clayton and his Orchestra (featuring Frankie Laine) is an example of sophisticated jazz, starting with some brilliant piano playing which soon gives way to some soulful trumpet playing, which is then joined by the rest of the orchestra, playing in a subdued, lilting style. In keeping with many jazz songs of the era, Frankie Laine's singing does not come in until a good deal into the piece. Buck Clayton and his Orchestra (still featuring Frankie Laine!) next perform Stars Fell on Alabama ...

Martinscholes 27.11.2005 · Read full review
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Review of Vintage Jazz Vol.4 - Various Artists

Vintage Jazz Volume 13.

Advantages: Fantastic range of great tunes and songs
Disadvantages: None

My late Father would have approved of this CD. For this, he would have said, was real Jazz. "Not like this modern rubbish!" My father's idea of real Jazz was music by the greats of the 1920 and 1930s. Jack Teagarden, for example. Mezz Mezzrow, was another of his heroes. And perhaps some of the early Louis Armstrong. Well, two out of three ain't bad. There's no Mezz Mezzrow on this CD, but there is plenty of Jack Teagarden and some early Louis Armstrong, too. There's also Lester Young and Artie Shaw, too. I have to agree with my dad. This rocks. Well, perhaps not rocks, but I think you know what I mean! Jack Teagarden's jazz is the ultimate in smoooooth jazz. Until he really wanted to become lively, then it was as if you were listening to an entirely different orchestra. The first two Jack Teagarden and his Orchestra tracks ...

Martinscholes 21.11.2005 · Read full review
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Review of Vintage Jazz Vol.13 - Various Artists